To these words Elicio and the remaining shepherds who were there, added many others whereby it seemed that Lenio was somewhat more consoled. And straightway he related to them how he was dying for the cruel shepherdess Gelasia, emphasising to them the scornful and loveless disposition of hers, and how free and exempt she was from thinking on any goal in love, describing to them also the insufferable torment which for her sake the gentle shepherd Galercio was suffering, on whom she set so little store that a thousand times she had set him on the verge of suicide. But after they had for a while discoursed on these things, they resumed their journey, taking Lenio with them, and without anything else happening to them they reached the village, Elicio taking with him Thyrsis, Damon, Erastro, Lauso and Arsindo. With Daranio went Crisio, Orfenio, Marsilio, and Orompo. Florisa and the other shepherdesses went with Galatea and her father Aurelio, having first agreed that on the morrow at the coming of the dawn they should meet to go to the valley of cypresses as Telesio had bidden them, in order to celebrate Meliso's obsequies. At them, as has already been said, Timbrio, Silerio, Nisida and Blanca wished to be present, who went that night with the venerable Aurelio. FOOTNOTES: [116] (Sr. D. Francisco Rodríguez Marín--who holds that the character of Galatea "is not and cannot be" intended to represent Cervantes's future wife--points to this passage in confirmation of his view: see his valuable monograph entitled _Luis Barahona de Soto, Estudio biográfico, bibliográfico y crítico_ (Madrid, 1903), p. 119. In this distinguished scholar's opinion, the words _el rabadán mayor_ apply to Philip II., and, by way of illustration, he quotes Lope de Vega's brilliant _romance_ written to celebrate the wedding of Philip III. and Margaret of Austria: El gran rabadán al reino Vino de Valladolid, Con galanes labradores Y más floridos que abril. Galatea, as Sr. Rodríguez Marín believes, was a lady about the court who could not marry without the King's permission--a permission unnecessary for anyone in the modest social position of Doña Catalina de Palacios Salazar y Vozmediano. But compare the _Introduction_ to the present volume, pp. xxxii.-xxxiii. J. F.-K.) BOOK VI.